Recent years have seen the development of so-called autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, i.e., passenger cars and the like that include computers programmed to carry our one or more vehicle operations. Such vehicles range from semi-autonomous vehicles having limited capabilities to control braking and steering (e.g., presently-existing lane-keeping technology) to fully autonomous vehicles such as are now known in which a vehicle computer may make all vehicle operation decisions, e.g., all decisions concerning propulsion, brakes, and steering.
A challenge arises in fully and semi-autonomous vehicles when a human operator requests control over one or more vehicle components. For example, in an autonomous vehicle, if an operator causes steering, brake or accelerator pedals to move, a vehicle computer may lack sufficient information to decide if it is better to hand control back to the driver or to continue autonomous control. In this example, the vehicle computer may lack information to determine that an operator has bumped a pedal or steering wheel when sleeping or inebriated, that a child or other passenger has bumped a steering wheel in the middle of a turn, etc.
On the other hand a computer controlling vehicle operations, e.g., in a fully autonomous vehicle, may have inadequate data for controlling and operating the vehicle. For example, conditions or malfunctions may prevent sensors from detecting a surrounding environment clearly, which may result in a vehicle computer providing instructions to steer a vehicle in dangerous direction.
In other instances, conditions may be in a “gray area” such that it is difficult to make a clear determination whether the vehicle computer and/or a human operator can safely operate some or all vehicle components. Thus, difficulties arise in a vehicle computer tasked with deciding how to share responsibility for operating a vehicle with a vehicle occupant. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that real world driving includes many different events with high variability, uncertainty, and vagueness.